Saturday, 28 February 2015

Nothing like it. Just a small envelope with a few cards - but still appreciated. Especially since another small envelope is on its way to WV as I type.

Let's start off with someone I'm really happy to welcome to my hit collection with this Jimmy Key. As best as my searching could tell me, there is not a lot of Jimmy Key hits out there. And the ones there are have him on the Yankees. There are buyback autos on Toronto, but nothing when it came to relics. For all I know, this could still be a Yankees jersey, but for the lack of a pinstripe, I'll accept it as Toronto.

This one was a puzzler for me. Which hit binder should this go in? Jays or Mets? This was simple math. Halladay > Wagner.

Easy!

And this was even easier. All three are Mets swatches. And if you look closely, there's two colours on the Wright. That's a patch! Not only is this swatch my first Mets patch, as best as I can tell, but it is also by first swatch with any orange on it.

Thanks for this beautiful addition to my Mets collection, Matt, and I hope you like the envelope heading your way!

Friday, 27 February 2015

Fire was the oldest pack that I busted, going back about a month or so. The packaging is definitely loud.

As is the content. They definitely take me back to some of the late 90s Fleer Universe designs with the space-y background. The Williams is a flame parallel. I couldn't find any odds about those on the pack, so I guess the glossier versions are 1 per pack. The purple Manning /499 is a 1:13 parallel. And there's a throwback uniform on the Aikman as well. While I would probably be too old to enjoy a box of this, I can tolerate a pack or two of loudness.

The design carries over to the back. At least they keep to the text to the white portion for my ancient eyes.

The other two products came out earlier this week to the LCS. While I've already got a pile of Raptors on my way from a 1/2 case break, I'll still sample a pack of the not too costly product.

Now that is a Houston Rockets hot pack, with 3 base cards in a row. While I don't think I'd enjoy building this set with only 5 base cards per pack in a 200 card set, I really like some of the inserts. Especially the Court Kings, mainly because I think it is nice to see that matte finished cards with the artistic look are available in a lower end set instead of only in the mid-range hit based set of the same name.

If you liked the baseball backs, you'll like the backs here.

And the final pack.

Kinda bland photo choices for this. The OPC update cards fall at a rate of 1:12 packs, with rookies at 1:7 and 1:17 for veterans. The plus side of these is that the numbering scheme has the cards starting with a 'U' as opposed to continuing the numbering from the main OPC set. So that takes away any obsessive compulsive desire to hunt down any of the cards from that set to complete my 14-15 OPC set.

See! This one is U24! Not six hundred something.

Other than the change to Series Two, no difference in the backs from Series 1. The Kitchener Rangers reference for alumni Murphy makes me pick this back to highlight.

I guess the Donruss basketball was the best pack of the bunch with the Court Kings insert, followed by the Fire. Surprisingly, due to generic photography, the Series 2 comes last.

Thursday, 26 February 2015

A decent haul, especially since it is a local show with only a tiny dime box.

And I'll start with the dime box stuff, which only added 10 cards to my collection, which is pretty good for a dime box with less than 1K cards in it, mostly football and hockey. No reason for this card beyond the fact the name made me chuckle. He might not be a Dick Cummings, but who is?

The only Mets card in the box that I picked up was this one from last year's 50 years of the Draft insert. Can't complain about adding a new card of Strawberry to my Mets binder.

The misc baseball from the box. That Gallery Heritage of Gwynn is really nice, but this is an intriguing foursome that includes 3 legends, and a legendarily long name with William VanLandingham.

And to close the dime box - Bills! Bills! Bills! Bills!

Off to the 4 cards that I pulled from a quarter bin. The first three definitely have a Montreal feel, leading the way with a pair of cards out of a 1992 Nabisco set. These two don't exactly have the thickest stock, but they do have a nice "free with cookies" vibe to them.

And here's the second Montreal card - the first of 5 new 2/14 cards in this post. Geoffrion has 4 cards in this set, but this appears to be the only one that isn't a high number SP. If they did SPs with this set, as I wasn't collecting too intensely at this time.

Also: Bernard.

I know nothing about Duane Underwood. But, how could I pass on a shiny parallel numbered /75?

Off to the dollar bins:

Lousy stupid Young Guns premium saw this in the dollar bin. But, it is the second card for my 2-14 collection in this post. And if this ends up being a dupe, it can go into my Sens collection. Easy.

And now 3 autographs for a dollar each. Tom Pyatt is card #3 that will be on its way to the 2/14 binder. Randy Cunneyworth will be in the Sens binder, and then there's Joe Sacco. Much as I'm amazed by a rather busy entry into the wardrobe of Ducks jerseys, that isn't the reason. My second Airedale, Hogan, used to have an Airedale playmate at a leash-free park named Sacco. While I doubt that this Joe Sacco was any factor in the name, seeing it made me think of the fun the two 'dales would have running together. And that's the only reason I needed.

Some swatches for the $2 cards. The Hejduk is /100, and doesn't look anywhere near as dull in hand as in scan. And there's another bunch of relics for my Sens collection. Surprisingly, this is my first Robin Lehner swatch for my collection.

And finally, a $3.00 relic. Numbered to 49, and with a nice-sized seamed swatch, this does feel like one that should be numbered to that low. Gaborik and Hejduk are by far the leaders in terms of hits in the binder, and this allows them to maintain those levels. Although I've got 2 more Milans with hits, Marian has a 5 card overall lead with 80 total cards. My 2/14 total overall is 949, and I hope to hit 1000 by the time the Expo rolls around in May.

Considering I have 27 still to post in my various COMC boxes, that should not be a problem.

Wednesday, 25 February 2015

While I am not a big fan of the Contenders design this year, I still decided to pick up a spot in a random break of the product. There are interesting in autos in the product, so I figured why not have a little chase? The randomizer landed on a combo spot for me - Colts/Ravens. That gives me a personal chase card, since 2/14 baby Keith Wenning has autos in this product. I've got one of his base, maybe I'll get something new for my 2-14 PC.

But, I'll start with the Colts, which didn't really have a chase card, but still had some nice possibilities.

Mojo ships all the base cards, so I got plenty of Colts team sets out of the case. 11 to be precise. I got 11 of the Wayne and Richardson, but 14 of the Luck.

Here's the inserts the Colts portion of the slot got for me. Only 1 card of the MVP Luck, 2 of each card with Moncrief, but 4 of the touchdown tandems.

This is the gold holofoil parallel of the previous Moncrief Nice and shiny. 1 off from the coveted 99/99 ebay 1/1.

Two teams increased the chance of base parallels, and I grabbed this nice looking one of Andrew Luck. Definitely an uncorrected error in the upper corner. But, I guess I can now resell this as a /199 rookie of his. But I'll probably hang on to the card just for the humour value.

Aside from a few major SSPs, there's really only one auto for the Colts - and I ended up with it. This should be on-card once the redemption comes through.

That's it for the Colts. On to Baltimore!

11 each of the team base. Nice and consistent.

At least this parallel doesn't proclaim Torrey a rookie.

This does appear to be the only non-hit insert in this set for the Ravens. And I got two of 'em!

Speaking of two...

Not just a single new Keith Wenning, but two new ones for my 2/14 club. I think the one that is cropped closer is the variation, seeing that the seat and section are reversed. Short of pulling a card with even lower numbering, I don't think I could have asked for better results from the Ravens portion of the break.

The Wenning portion of my 2/14 now stands at 5, 4 of which are sticker-graphs. Keep chasing his rainbows.

Tuesday, 24 February 2015

Nothing adds to a trip to Dollarama like a 15 cards for a dollar pack.

2014 Upper Deck Damien Brunner - I'm on a slow build of the Series 1. While I'm still about 60 cards out, this one was a need and I figured "why not?". And if it wasn't a need, at least it would be a cool photo.

Monday, 23 February 2015

While I am still awaiting 2 packages with more than 100 cards, I can still work my way through the 100 remaining cards that I have yet to post. As before, I just fired up random.org to pick 6 numbers between 1 and 100, and will post those cards. Sometimes I do this in the order I pull them in the box, but I feel like going chronologically today.

Here we go!

And we start with vintage, with a trip back to 1959! This seems like an odd one for me at first, since despite being a cool older card, it on the surface really doesn't fit into any of my collections. But, you turn it over:

And then it becomes clear why an Airedale person such as myself would want this card. Whether Airedale is a complimentary nickname is up for debate. I really wouldn't want to be nicknamed after their perpetual puppy-like personality.

And now we jump into the 90s, with a card that definitely offers a new perspective on the concept of a player being behind the camera. It is also a card that might interest GCRL and his patch collection, with the CES patch, as best as Google can tell me, is for Texas League President Carl Sawatski.

Hey! A new 2/14 card! This is my 9th Callix Crabbe, with the album total being now at 942.

An autograph is up next. It is big. It is legible. It is on card. And it is of a guy named Bake. The question is not why I got this card, but why it took me until 2014 to add this 2012 beauty to my collection of autos. And it is a 1975 card being saluted in this reprint as well., Perfection!

This is technically not a COMC Challenge card, but a Black Friday shopping spree card. An autograph of Winnipeg's second finest export into the wrestling world. And despite not being in TNA anymore, she's still kicking ass in CMLL.

And finally, the sixth card in an addition to my Rangers alumni collection. While it is not even close to a beautiful /36 logo patch from Prime I picked up of his, it is still an interesting photograph. I'm not sure which portion of the game it is from. The light show makes it seem like it is from the intros, but he's exiting the ice without his stick. Post-game 3 star perhaps?